A license that gives you permission to configure doors for access control in XProtect Access.
1) System administrator. 2) In previous versions of your system: the main application used by system administrators for configuring the surveillance system server. Now called the Management Application.
Analytics events are data received from an external third-party video content analysis (VCA) provider. An example of a VCA-based system is an access control system. Analytics events integrates seamlessly with the Alarms feature.
Application Program Interface—set of tools and building blocks for creating or customizing software applications.
The height/width relationship of an image.
Automatic teller machine—machine that dispenses money when a personal coded card is used.
A popular file format for video. Files in this format carry the .avi file extension.
A license that gives you permission to use the software of an XProtect VMS product and/or XProtect add-on product.
A feature for displaying video from several cameras, one after the other, in a single camera position. The required cameras and the intervals between changes are specified by the system administrator. The carousel feature is available in XProtect Smart Client.
XProtect Central is a feature that provides a complete overview of status and alarms from any number of the system's servers, regardless of location.
A technology for compressing and decompressing audio and video data, for example, in an exported AVI file. MPEG and Indeo are examples of frequently used codecs.
Comma-separated values data format that stores tabular data, where the lines represent rows in a table and commas define the columns, in a simple file. For example, data about cameras may appear as comma-separated values in a .csv file, which you can then import into your system. It is an effective method if you set up several similar systems.
In an XProtect surveillance system: a camera, video encoder, input device, or output device connected to a recording server.
A threshold on the number of hardware devices you can replace or add if your XProtect system is offline before you must make a manual license activation.
A Windows extension providing advanced multimedia capabilities.
Domain Name System—system allowing translation between alphabetic host names (for example, mycomputer) or domain names (for example, www.mydomain.com) and numeric IP addresses (for example, 192.168.212.2). Many people find alphabetic names easier to remember than numeric IP addresses.
A program used for controlling/communicating with a device.
Daylight saving time: temporarily advancing of clocks during the summer so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less.
Some cameras support two independent streams (which can be sent to the recording server): one for live viewing and another for playback purposes. Each stream has its own resolution, encoding, and frame rate.
A server that stores and handles incoming alarm data and events from all surveillance system servers. The Event Server enables powerful monitoring and provides an instant overview of alarms and possible technical problems within your systems.
A type of lens that allows the creation and viewing of fisheye images.
Frames per second—measurement indicating the amount of information contained in a motion video. Each frame represents a still image, but when frames are displayed in succession, the illusion of motion is created. The higher the FPS, the smoother the motion appears. Note, however, that a high FPS may also lead to a large file size when video is saved.
A measurement indicating the amount of information contained in motion video—typically measured in FPS.
Your system can receive and analyze input in the form of TCP or UDP data packages which, if they match specified criteria, you can use to generate events. Such events are called generic events.
Group of pictures: individual frames grouped together, forming a video-motion sequence.
When you install and configure your system and add recording servers and cameras, the different devices run in a trial period until you activate your licenses. This period of trial is the grace period. You must activate you licenses before the grace period expires or your system will stop working. If your system is online, your licenses are activated automatically.
Globally unique identifier—unique 128-bit number used to identify components on a Windows system.
A standard for compressing and decompressing video data (a codec). H.264 is a codec that compresses video more effectively than older codecs, and it provides more flexibility for use in a variety of network environments.
When you add a digital camera to your system, you are not adding the camera itself only, but rather hardware devices. Hardware devices have their own IP addresses or host names. Being IP-based, your system primarily identifies units based on their IP addresses or host names.
Even though each hardware device has its own IP address or host name, you can attach several cameras, microphones and speakers to a single hardware device and share the same IP address or host name. This is typically the case with cameras attached to video encoder devices.
You can configure each camera, microphone and similar channels on the hardware device individually, even when several of them are attached to a single hardware device.
A license that gives you permission to run a camera or encoder on your XProtect system. If you want to use the video push feature on a mobile device or tablet, you also need a hardware device license per device.
A computer connected to a TCP/IP network. A host has its own IP address, but may—depending on network configuration—also have a host name to make it easily identifiable.
Particular position for viewing enlarged and/or high quality video in XProtect Smart Client.
Input/Output: refers to the communication between a computer and a person. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system and outputs are the signals or data sent from it.
Short name for intra-frame. Used in the MPEG standard for digital video compression. An I-frame is a single frame stored at specified intervals. The I-frame records the entire view of the camera, whereas the frames that follow (P-frames) record only the pixels that change. This helps greatly reduce the size of MPEG files. An I-frame is similar to a keyframe.
A service that handles access to the system for remote users logging in with XProtect Smart Client.
The Image Server service does not require separate hardware as it runs in the background on the surveillance system's server. The Image Server service is not configured separately but is configured through the system's Management Application.
A technology that allows the creation and viewing of panomorph Fisheye images.
(Also JPG) Joint Photographic Experts Group—widely used lossy compression technique for images.
Used in the MPEG standard for digital video compression, a keyframe is a single frame stored at specified intervals. The keyframe records the entire view of the camera, whereas the frames between the keyframes record only the pixels that change. This helps greatly reduce the size of MPEG files.
A license that gives you permission to configure a camera for use with XProtect LPR.
A license that gives you access to different country or regional license plate formats that you can use with XProtect LPR.
Media Access Control address—12-character hexadecimal number uniquely identifying each device on a network.
You can generate an event manually from the client. These events are called manual events.
A setup of servers where one server (the master server) is of higher importance than the remaining servers (the slave servers). With a master/slave setup in your system, you can combine several surveillance system servers and extend the number of cameras you can use beyond the maximum allowed number of cameras for a single server.
In such a setup, clients still have a single point of contact: they connect to the master server but also get access, transparently, to cameras and recordings on the slave servers.
A feature that enables the control of live camera views on remote computers for distributed viewing. Once configured, you can view Matrix-triggered live video in XProtect Smart Client.
A computer equipped with XProtect Smart Client-software and therefore capable of displaying Matrix-triggered live video.
Motion JPEG—compressed video format where each frame is a separately compressed JPEG image. The method used is quite similar to the I-frame method used for MPEG, but no interframe prediction is used. This allows for somewhat easier editing, and makes compression independent of the amount of motion.
Compression standards and file formats for digital video developed by the Moving Pictures Experts Group. MPEG standards use so-called lossy compression as they store only the changes between frames, removing often considerable amounts of redundant information. Keyframes stored at specified intervals record the entire view of the camera, whereas the frames that follow record only pixels that change. This helps greatly reduce the size of MPEG files.
In a Windows network, NT LAN Manager is a network authentication protocol.
A type of lens that allows the creation and viewing of Fisheye-technology images.
Pan-tilt-zoom. A highly movable and flexible type of camera.
Predictive frame—the MPEG standard for digital video compression uses P-frames together with I-frames. An I-frame, also known as a keyframe, is a single frame stored at specified intervals. The I-frame records the entire view of the camera, whereas the frames that follow (the P-frames) record only the pixels that change. This helps greatly reduce the size of MPEG files.
Personal identification number (or personal identity number)—number used to identify and authenticate users.
A computer network administration utility used to determine whether an IP address is available, by sending a small amount of data to see if it responds. The word ping was chosen because it mirrors the sound of a sonar. You send the ping command using a Windows command prompt.
Regularly checking the state of something, for example, whether input has been received on a particular input port of a device. The defined interval between such state checks is often called a polling frequency.
Logical endpoint for data traffic. Networks use different ports for different types of data traffic. Therefore it is sometimes, but not always, necessary to specify which port to use for particular data communication. Most ports are used automatically based on the types of data included in the communication. On TCP/IP networks, port numbers range from 0 to 65536, but only ports 0 to 1024 are reserved for particular purposes. For example, port 80 is used for HTTP traffic, which is used when viewing web pages.
(Also PoS) Point of sale: the physical place where a sale is made, for example, at the cash register.
The ability to store recordings from periods following motion and/or specified events.
It is based on incoming video buffered on the system server in case it is needed for a motion- or event-triggered recording.
It can be a good idea to use post-recording if, for example, you have defined that the system should record video while a gate is open and you would like to see what happens immediately after the gate closes.
Pre-alarm images is a feature available for selected cameras only. It enables the sending of images from immediately before an event took place from the camera to ÿour system via email.
See the description of Pre-recording.
The ability to store recordings from periods before your system detected motion and/or specified events. This ability is based on incoming video buffered on the system server in case it is needed for a motion- or event-triggered recording.
It can be a good idea to use pre-recording if, for example, you have defined that the system should record video when someone opens a door, it may also be important to be able to see what happened right before the doors opened.
The ability to define if and how selected areas of a camera's view should be masked before distribution. For example, if a camera films on a street, you can highlight certain areas of a building (for example, windows and doors) with privacy masking in order to protect residents' privacy.
Personal Unblocking Key or PIN Unlock Key—number used as an extra security measure for SIM cards.
On IP video surveillance systems, recording means saving video and, if applicable, audio from a camera in the camera database on the surveillance system. In many IP surveillance systems, all the video/audio received from cameras is not necessarily saved. Saving of video and audio in a camera database is in many cases started only when there is a reason to do so, for example, when motion is detected, when an event occurs, or when a specific period of time begins. Recording is then stopped after a specified amount of time, for example, when motion is no longer detected, when an event occurs, or when a time period ends. The term recording originates from the analog video era, when images were taped only when the record button was pressed.
Windows service (without any user interface) used by your system for recording and displaying video. Video is only transferred to the surveillance system while the Recording Server service is running.
Restore points allow you to return to a previous configuration state. When a configuration change is applied in your system, a restore point is created. If something goes wrong in your configuration, you can browse through restore points, and return to a suitable one.
A file extension (.scs) for a script type targeted at controlling clients.
Software Development Kit—programming package enabling software developers to create applications for use with a specific platform.
Subscriber identity module—circuit stored on a small card inserted into a mobile phone or computer, or other mobile device. The SIM card is used to identify and authenticate the user.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol—standard for sending e-mail messages between mail servers.
Software license code (SLC) is a product registration code required to use the surveillance system software. Your software licenses file is named after your Software License Code (SLC). If you do not have system administration responsibilities, you do not have to work with SLCs. System administrators use SLCs during the installation and registration of the software.
A file that contains all the permissions you have for your system, including base licenses and other licenses.
The filename is based on your Software License Code (SLC).
A part of a network. Dividing a network into subnets can be advantageous for management and security reasons, and may in some cases also help improve performance. On TCP/IP-based networks, a subnet is basically a part of a network on which all devices share the same prefix in their IP addresses, for example 123.123.123.xxx, where the first three numbers (123.123.123) are the shared prefix. Network administrators use subnet masks to divide networks into subnets.
Transmission Control Protocol—protocol (or standard) used for sending data packets across networks. TCP is often combined with another protocol, IP (Internet Protocol). The combination, known as TCP/IP, allows data packets to be sent back and forth between two points on a network for longer periods of time, and is used when connecting computers and other devices on the internet.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol—combination of protocols (or standards) used when connecting computers and other devices on networks, including the internet.
Terminal emulation program used on TCP/IP networks. With Telnet, you can connect to a server from a computer on the network and execute commands through Telnet as if you were entering them directly on the server. Windows includes a client for use with Telnet.
A license that gives you permission to associate cameras with ATMs and POSs and configure them for XProtect Transact.
User Datagram Protocol—connectionless protocol for sending data packets across networks. Primarily used for broadcasting messages. UDP is a fairly simple protocol, with less error recovery features than, for example, the TCP protocol.
A UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) works as a battery-driven secondary power source, providing the necessary power for saving open files and safely powering down your system in the event of power irregularities. UPSs vary in sophistication, but many UPSs include software for automatically saving open files, for alerting system administrators, etc.
Video content analysis (VCA) is a system that detects various types of previously specified behavior, both of humans and vehicles. A VCA-based system provides third-party video content analysis, spanning from face recognition, over advanced motion detection, to complex behavioral analysis. VCA systems and their output can seamlessly be integrated with the Alarms feature and used for, for example, triggering alarms. The events resulting from VCA systems are called analytics events.
Third-party VCA tools are developed by independent partners delivering solutions based on an a Milestone open platform. These solutions can impact performance on your system.
A device, typically a standalone device, that can stream video from a number of connected client cameras. Video encoders contain image digitizers, making it possible to connect analog cameras to a network.
Video motion detection. A way of defining activity in a scene by analyzing image data and the differences in a series of images.
Another name for a video encoder.
A collection of video from one or more cameras, presented together in XProtect Smart Client. A view may include other content, such as HTML pages and static images, in addition to video from cameras.
A utility to help perform a particular task quickly, while also ensuring coverage of all relevant parameters. For example, the Adjust Motion Detection wizard quickly helps you configure motion detection on each of the system's cameras without the risk of forgetting to set any key parameters.
An add-on to your surveillance system.
XProtect Transact can help you prevent loss and shrinkage through video evidence combined with time-linked POS or ATM transaction data.
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